City could maintain fire rating without closing hose houses

Evansville can maintain its Insurance Services Office rating without shutting down two fire stations and consolidating them into existing facilities, officials acknowledged Monday.

However, Chief Keith Jarboe said he still favors that plan as a way to address deficiencies in coverage on the East Side.

Jarboe unveiled a proposal in October to consolidate the personnel and resources from Hose Houses 10 and 14 into existing East Side stations to improve protection there and to keep the city's ISO rating from slipping.

Heated criticism from firefighters and residents followed, and an advisory committee was formed to examine the city's fire protection and make suggestions on what to do. The group's second meeting is Tuesday night.

Since its first meeting last week, however, the Fire Department received word from ISO officials that a series of other proposed changes could increase its score from a 66.99 to 67.95.

The city previously had been informed by ISO that creating a backup radio dispatch service and placing a quint in a North Side station would add 2.24 points to the score.

Combined with the addition outlined in the latest letter, Evansville could get its score to 70.19 — slightly above the 70-point threshold for keeping its ISO rating at level 3. Consolidating the stations and reallocating the personnel also would get the city to a 3.

Jarboe insisted Monday, however, that keeping the rating is secondary to addressing issues with coverage across the city, including a lack of redundant protection across the East Side and a deficiency near Burdette and Frisse avenues. To address those problems, consolidation is still "the best option," he said.

"We don't believe we're meeting the level of service we should be meeting," he said. "By making these moves, it allows us to cover this city with the level of service it requires and deserves. … I still have an obligation to this community to ensure the best service we can provide here. By consolidating the stations and ensuring we have proper coverage across the entire city, we do that."

City Councilwoman Wendy Bredhold, a co-chairwoman of the advisory committee and an opponent of the station closings, said the news the rating can be maintained means the committee no longer needs to focus on dissecting the ISO report.

Instead, she said it can turn its attention to the station closings themselves. Closing them unfairly will increase response times in the areas they serve and stretch the resources of the surrounding stations, she said.

She hopes Jarboe ultimately agrees and decides against closing them.

"The way you convince him is by having him listen to residents and people with concerns," she said. "… This is going to affect response times throughout the city. The whole city should be concerned."

Jarboe said he would continue to attend the advisory committee hearings and listen to ideas with an open mind.

But he said he is not going to consider keeping stations 10 and 14 open simply because the ISO rating can be maintained in other ways. He said he does not have a timeline for consolidation but that the deficiencies need to be addressed as soon as possible.

"If you didn't have the required coverage, how urgent would it be to you?" he said. "I think once you identify a problem, you have an obligation to address it and do it expeditiously."

The changes outlined in the most recent ISO letter include adding various equipment to trucks, scoring two new engines that weren't in service when the initial review was conducted and creating a storage tank to hold firefighting foam.